Open thread 4/7/2025
A personal note: I was a dance extra (“silent bit”) in the movie. I wrote about the experience in this post.
Continue reading →neo
Open threads and the scrolling days
I’ve been doing open threads every day except Sunday for quite some time. I think they’re a nice addition to the blog and people seem to like them and enjoy the open-ended commenting. But I’ve noticed an unforeseen side effect … Continue reading →
Tariffs again
Here’s another post on tariffs, because they’re a big deal right now. As I’ve said several times, I haven’t decided what I think about them and am willing to adopt a “wait and see” attitude. But in the meantime, they … Continue reading →
Erdogan had plans for Syria …
… but Israel has apparently thwarted them, at least for now: Turkey scoped out at least three airbases in Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact before Israel hit the sites with airstrikes … Continue reading →
Open thread 4/5/2025
The video I chose for today has embedding disabled. It’s about how people used to preserve food before refrigerators. That may not sound all that interesting to you, but I found it quite fascinating. So if you want to watch … Continue reading →
Hamas revises its casualty figues downward
There is no excuse for any western news organization reporting Hamas’ death figures as truth. And yet they do it constantly. Meanwhile: Hamas’ new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully “identified” deaths listed in its Aug & Oct … Continue reading →
On those prescription drug ads on TV
Roger L. Simon writes: We have all sorts of advertisements for medical installations big and small competing for our attention (and money), but even worse we have virtually non-stop advertising for prescription drugs on television. Indeed they seem to dominate … Continue reading →
The experts: who do you trust?
I don’t put much trust in experts’ prognostications, and haven’t for a long time. I think it began when so many failed to predict the fall of the Soviet Union. I was a Democrat back then, and I didn’t see … Continue reading →
Open thread 4/4/2025
Why does the future always feature unitards?
Continue reading →I want to get a gig updating websites for the government
I can do that. I’ve designed websites. I do it very very slowly but hey, I do it. And the pay would be very very helpful (hat tip Ace): The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the agency created by executive … Continue reading →
Trump’s tariffs anger Europe
Europe is angry at Trump. You might ask: what else is new? Europe has been angry at Trump for a long time – that is, when it’s not busy ridiculing him for things like warning them (pre Ukraine War) about … Continue reading →
More on sliding scales for traffic fines: good or bad idea?
Commenter “Gorgasal” makes a point about differential speeding fines that I’ve seen made many times by proponents. In fact, it’s the main argument for them, and it goes like this: Speeding tickets that scale with income are the norm in … Continue reading →